[March 2025] To be presented at AAAL 2025 in Denver, CO.

Abstract: The struggle between maintaining one’s language(s) and adopting a partner’s language(s) is common in multilingual romantic couples and depends on many factors (Kiaer & Ahn, 2023). In addition to L2 investment (e.g., Reichmuth, 2020), these relationships provide dynamic contexts for investigating intercultural communication (e.g., Holliday et al., 2021; Piller, 2002), identity development (e.g., Bystydzieński, 2011; Stępkowska, 2021), and language use (e.g., Ang-Tschachtli, 2022). However, the role of texting on L2 investment within multilingual romantic partnerships remains underexplored in linguistics research (e.g., Han, 2019). This mixed-methods study explores how 20 multilingual couples leveraged digital messaging features in their one-on-one text conversations, and investigated (1) how negotiation of identities, capital, and ideologies shaped language investment; (2) how texting functionalities and semiotic resources facilitated language-related episodes (LREs); and (3) the interplay among identity, anxiety, multicultural personality (Ponterotto, 2010), digital communication, LREs, and L2 investment. 20 couples (N=40) completed two Zoom interviews (60 and 90 minutes) and provided screenshots of their text conversations, i.e., language artifacts (e.g., Maa & Taguchi, 2022). Qualitative data was analyzed using NVIVO, focusing on themes of LREs, L2 investment, semiotic resources, and technological functionalities. Coded transcripts were then analyzed via NLP methods in Python 3.11 and descriptively quantified. Next, quantitative data included scores from an adapted language anxiety scale (York et al., 2021) and the Multicultural Personality Inventory-34 (MPI-34; Fietzer & Ponterotto, 2022). Finally, data were analyzed for trends via cluster analysis. Viewed through the L2 investment model (Darvin & Norton, 2015), findings illustrate how partners positioned themselves as language and culture “experts” or “novices” during digitally-mediated LREs, serving as guides, facilitators, and occasionally gatekeepers of their partner’s learning. This study demonstrates how challenges and opportunities, arising from intercultural conflicts, individual differences, (in)accessibility of resources, and digitally-mediated communication, shape couples’ investment in learning their partner’s language(s).

Invited Colloquium on Investment in language learning and teaching: The negotiation of identity, capital, and ideology (Conveners: Ron Darvin & Bonny Norton).

[March 17, 2024] Presented at AAAL 2024 in Houston, TX.

Abstract: Multilingual romantic partnerships provide unique contexts for exploring interplays among intercultural communication (e.g., Piller, 2000, 2002), identity (e.g., Parr, 2013), and L2 investment (e.g., Ang-Tschachtli, 2022; Norton, 2013, Darvin & Norton, 2017; Reichmuth, 2020). As digitally-mediated communication in daily life plays an increasingly important role in facilitating multilingual family relationships (e.g., Palviainen, 2020; Palviainen & Kędra, 2020), there is a need for more research on digitally-mediated communication within multilingual romantic partnerships (e.g., King O'Riain, 2014). This mixed-methods study expands on this digital, multilingual "family talk" research by comparing self-reported and performed language trends in private text messaging within 20 multilingual couples (aged 22–35). Couples had been dating for at least six months and indicated that their partner’s primary language was different from their own. Data collection consisted of two 30-minute sessions via Zoom with each couple. The semi-structureed interview and stimulated recall protocols invited participants to report on their use of digital messaging tools and reflect on their multilingual and intercultural communication experiences, as well as screenshots of their texting conversations (i.e., “language artifacts,” per Maa & Burns, 2021 and Maa & Taguchi, 2022). Qualitative thematic analysis followed guidelines established by Merriam (2009) and Maxwell (2012) for recurring topics of identity and L2 investment (David & Norton, 2017; Norton, 2013) in the interviews and SR sessions as well as salient linguistic features (e.g., emoji, memoji, memes, translanguaging) in the language artifacts. Zoom transcript data of the identity and L2 investment themes were triangulated with quantitative analysis via natural language processing methods of Term-Frequency–Inverse Document Frequency (TF–IDF) and topic modeling. Finally, relationships among themes of identity and L2 investment (self-reported data) and text-based linguistic features (performed data) were explored through cluster analysis, which illustrated how 20 multilingual couples’ unique digital “couple talk” interplayed with the development of their L2 investment and intercultural identities.